Conservative leadership candidates spar over trucker convoy, bitcoin in fiery French debate
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Loading... - Henry Williams
- 26 May 2022
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The six candidates vying for the Conservative Party's top job sparred in the last official debate of the leadership campaign on Wednesday — clashing over everything from the trucker convoy to bitcoin and tax cuts in a fiery matchup in a Laval, Que., banquet hall.
The two-hour debate featured pointed, personal exchanges throughout as Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre, the leading right-wing candidate in this race, traded jabs with his more centrist opponents, Brampton, Ont. Mayor Patrick Brown and former Quebec premier Jean Charest.
With the Conservatives running neck-and-neck with the governing Liberals in opinion polls, the front-running leadership contenders signalled they're willing to say just about anything about each other to land a job that could get them one step closer to the Prime Minister's Office.
Poilievre accused Brown and Charest of being corrupt while the two returned the favour, branding Poilievre an extremist who has welcomed racists into his movement.
On the hunt for francophone support in a province that helped decide the last two Conservative leadership races, the three leading candidates also argued over what to do about Quebec legislation that some say has curbed minority rights.
Conservative leadership candidates squared off in French during the second official debate of the race that saw heated exchanges between Jean Charest and Pierre Poilievre over the Ottawa trucker convoy and Quebec’s controversial Bill 21 banning public servants from wearing religious symbols.
Brown set his sights on Poilievre early in the debate and went on to pummel him for much of the contest.
Brown accused Poilievre of cozying up to accused criminals like Pat King — a convoy organizer with a history of making racist statements — and of pushing questionable investment advice by touting cryptocurrencies like bitcoin; the price of which has dropped some 50 per cent since its November 2021 high.
At one point he read out Poilievre's past statement that Canadians could "opt out" of inflation by investing in crypto.
If Canada had gone all-in on bitcoin like El Salvador, which adopted it as an official currency last year, the country would be headed for insolvency, Brown said.
"If you believed Pierre, your grandparents would have lost their life savings," he said.
Poilievre defends support of convoy
Poilievre dismissed Brown's charge that he'd duped his supporters into buying volatile financial products, and denied backing King.
But he defended his support for the convoy, saying someone had to take a stand against federal vaccine mandates that cost some people their jobs. He said mandatory shots "have done absolutely nothing" to help in Canada's fight against COVID-19.
Brown fired back, saying Poilievre only took a stand against mandates when it became politically popular in some circles.
He said, during the worst of the pandemic, Poilievre "sent 3,000 tweets and he didn't talk about vaccine mandates once. He only started talking about them when the leadership race began."
'That's your record'
Charest joined the Poilievre pile-on, saying the MP "doesn't really know what he's talking about" when he speaks about monetary policy.
He chided Poilievre's pledge to fire Tiff Macklem, the governor of the Bank of Canada, if he makes it to the Prime Minister's Office.
Charest said the Conservative Party needs a leader who "isn't beholden to conspiracy theories." Read More...
